More Wireless Recommendations?

[Warren Togami]

Here's my thoughts now regarding my home wireless setup:

PLAN A $330
2 Orinoco Silver PCMCIA cards for two notebook computers.
Linksys WAP11 Access Point plugged directly into a dedicated NIC on Linux
firewall.
Use iptables to control MAC address access to any network resources.  Will
this work?
Will iptables configuration be complicated?

PLAN B $240
2 Orinoco Silver PCMCIA cards for two notebook computers.
1 Orinoco Silver PCMCIA card + PCI PCMCIA adapter for Linux firewall.
Will point to point (card to card) setup be difficult?
Is it difficult to toggle to normal operation when I bring my notebook to
work or UH campus?
Use iptables to control MAC address access to any network resources.  Will
this work?
Will iptables configuration be complicated?

One question:
What is the difference between Orinoco Silver and Gold cards?  Price
difference seems negligible, while Gold card supports 128-bit WEP any bit
length of WEP is easily crackable, so is there no sense in buying Gold over
Silver?

Thanks,
Warren Togami
warren at togami.com